Ssamnara

There are loads of Korean restaurants in Strathfield, but this one has one distinguishing selling point that the others don't, that is the roll your own roll or "Saams". This is how the menu describes it: Cook at your table make yourself style rolls. Served with large basket of fresh veggies and side dishes. The place was packed so we took that as a good sign.

Food

As well as the "Saams", there are other more conventional Korean dishes on offer, but we decided to go for the specialty, the big bang. The Saam Nara Set ($25 p.p) - Menu Bul go gie Dwen jang jil gae Veggies Fish Etc.

Before the main meal of course, the side dishes arrived:

• Zucchini mushroom egg - oily, coated in eggs and fried
• Fried fish - has lots of bones but otherwise bland
• Pancake with shallot - don't know how to describe this but it was chewy and yum
• tofu soup - tastes like reconstituted miso
• Stir-fried beef - hot and chewy
• kim chi - less cabbage and hot as hot as usual
• Veg salad - yum
• Bean curd sheet - I love these
• Sesame rice cake - the cakes are plain but the sauce is fragrant sesame
• Dried octopus - yum, but you can't eat too much of it
• Whitebait - good and crunchy
• Pickled veggies - stock standard
• Vermicelli salad - I like these too, sweet and fragrant with sesame
• Dried preserved veggies - I don't see the point of these, the fresh ones are better
• Chilli crab - my favourite - there's not much meat but the sauce is excellent

It was quite funny watching them fit all our dishes on the table, together with our jug of water and bowls of rice. If that wasn't enough, they soon bought out a portable stove, which they then filled with water on the side. In the middle they tipped a whole pile of raw meat. A huge bowl of lettuce and whole chillis and some sauces followed, then they left us alone. We weren't' sure what we were supposed to do with all these stuff, and we couldn't quite see what other tables were doing, so we took some lettuce, wrapped it around some cooked meat, smeared on some sauce, skipped the chilli, and bit into it. Besides half the stuff falling out of the wrap, the meat was tender and marinated very well, and the lettuce was crunchy. At this stage we were already getting quite full so we didn't even manage to finish all the meat, but it was a very satisfying meal.

Rating - 7

Atmosphere

The room was decorated in aesthetic Korean style, with a traditional table, some bells and a bamboo screen framing the entrance. There was both traditional floor seating and the more comfortable tables and chair. Otherwise the room is pretty sparse. This little extra at the entrance does seem to add a bit of calm and peace to the chaos the waiters are creating. Maybe it's because they have to do so many dishes!

The clientèle is mixed, from big Korean groups, big non Korean groups to couples of all nationalities.

Rating - 1.5

Service

Well, like more than half of Strathfield, the waiters hardly spoke any English. They were juggling many many things at the same time, and looked very frantic. We couldn't get them to explain much to us, but they all acted very sincere. I give them credit for trying, but learning a little, just a little English would help a lot.

Rating - 3

C-factor

$50 for 2 for a meal that even Slokky couldn't finish. It's pretty good value but next time we will go for the $35 option that doesn't include the fish and veggies.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 12.5

Info

121/20-34 Albert Road
Strathfield
NSW 2135
Phone (02) 8756 5775